U.S. food and product packaging solutions company Sealed Air has partnered with Japanese chemical manufacturing company Kuraray for a project to manufacture plant-based food packaging.
Sealed Air will invest $24 million to refurbish its facility in Simpsonville, South Carolina, to make materials made from Kuraray’s Plantic brand plant-based resin and post-consumer plastic.
The extension is underway and production is expected to start in the second quarter of 2020. To support the deal, Kuraray is also injecting around $15 million to install plant-based high barrier resin production and supporting capabilities in Houston, Texas.
The resin plant is expected to be finalized at the end of September 2019 and will start operating in early 2020.